My Counselor, My Friend....All That I Need

              

                I decided to sit on my front porch this afternoon and read out of my Bible while I was out there.  It is getting ready to storm and the wind is blowing and you can hear the thunder rumbling.  I thought of all the storms that have occurred in my life.  I say this metaphorically.  Because when we go through any trial or tribulation it is a storm in our life.  It may not really be raining in the world but you feel as if the one and only rain cloud in the world is hanging over you.  I sat there and I kept thinking that with every rumble of thunder and gust of wind my God is a good God.  He is an amazing God.

                I opened my bible randomly and the scripture that jumped out to me was out of John 14, this is where Jesus promises His disciples the Holy Spirit:

                “15“If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”               

23Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

25“All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

28“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

This passage holds such wonderful promises.  Jesus promised us that when he was crucified that he would send us a Counselor.  He would send us the Holy Spirit.  Some people are confused as to whom the Holy Spirit was, and is.  The Holy Spirit is our counselor, our advocate our comforter.  The Holy Spirit convicts us when we are sinning.  It is what keeps The Word alive in us.  The Holy Spirit lives in us.

The Holy Spirit is there to make a home in us.  This is where we discern what God wants us to know.  Jesus went on to teach more about the Holy Spirit in John 16.  He told the disciples that it was good that he was going away from them because if he didn’t leave then the Counselor would not come to them, it wouldn’t come to us.  He went on to state, “When he comes he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment…… I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.”

The Holy Spirit works in us to help us discern what is right and what is wrong.  I feel The Holy Spirit in me and I know that God has great plans for all of us.  I think that if we take the time to develop a closer relationship with God and his Holy Spirit we will be able to move mountains.  It takes faith to believe in things that are not tangible.  It takes faith to rely on Christ.  But, God measured each and every one of us a portion of faith and it is my understanding that with prolonged time in The Word and in trying to live righteously that our faith grows leaps and bounds.

Love In Christ,

      Kristine